Search the dictionary

Search the dictionary

Exact search

For a search on an Ojibwe word, select the exact search box only if you know exactly what word you want in the
head word form used in the dictionary. Otherwise, when the exact search box is not selected, your Ojibwe language search will first
try to match your input exactly. If nothing is found that matches exactly, the search will try to guess at what the word you are asking
for might be by removing possible prefixes and suffixes..

How to use the Ojibwe People's Dictionary

About the Ojibwe Language

Ojibwe has been called by many names including Anishinaabemowin, Ojibwe, Ojibway, Ojibwa, Southwestern Chippewa, and Chippewa. It is a Central Algonquian language spoken by the Anishinaabe people throughout much of Canada from Ontario to Manitoba and US border states from Michigan to Montana. It is centered around the Great Lakes homeland of the Ojibwe people.

The variety of Ojibwe used in the Ojibwe People's Dictionary is the Central Southwestern Ojibwe spoken in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Canadian border lakes communities. Today, it is spoken mainly by elders over the age of 70. Ethnologue reports 5,000 speakers of Southwestern Chippewa (Lewis, 2009), but a 2009 language census by language activists Keller Paap and Anton Treuer shows approximately 1,000 speakers in Minnesota and Wisconsin, with most located in the Red Lake community of Ponemah (Treuer, 2009).

The UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger lists Ojibwe in Minnesota as “severely endangered” and defines it as a language “spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves,” (UNESCO, 2010).

Revitalization efforts are underway, with immersion schools operating in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Ojibwe has a growing number of second-language speakers, and the language is taught in many secondary and post-secondary classrooms throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ontario. The Ojibwe People's Dictionary is part of that greater project.

Sounds and Orthography

Double-Vowel Alphabet

The Ojibwe People's Dictionary uses the Double-Vowel system to write Ojibwe words. This alphabet has become the standard writing system for Ojibwe in the United States and in some parts of Canada. Users unfamiliar with spelling in the Double-Vowel alphabet should consult the Search Tips page for help in getting the best search results.

Note that the double vowels are treated as standing for unit sounds, and are alphabetized after the corresponding single vowels. The character ’ represents a glottal stop, which is a significant speech sound in Ojibwe. The doubled consonants (ch, sh, zh) are also treated as a single letter unit. This is important to remember as you browse alphabetically.

Each vowel is given below along with a phonetic transcription, Ojibwe words containing it, and one or more English words containing roughly equivalent sounds. The letters standing for the sounds focused on are in bold.

Long vowels after a nasal consonant m or n are often nasalized, especially before s, sh, z, or zh. It is often difficult to decide whether to write these as nasalized vowels or not. For example, while we write the word for 'moose' without indicating the phonetic nasalization, many prefer to write it with an n:

Additional Resources

Many of the words in the Ojibwe People's Dictionary have related resources. Click through to the full dictionary entry to hear audio recordings, see images, read documents and watch videos. Here's a key to resource icons.

Audio recordings

Images

Video

Documents

Speakers & Regions Key

Individual speakers and speakers from different regions use different words when speaking. Each audio recording is marked with the initials of the Ojibwe speaker. Click on a speaker's initials to go to the speaker's bio page.
If an Ojibwe word is particular to a certain region, it will be marked with a region code. Click on the region code to go to the Regions page.